The Provisional IRA's East Tyrone Brigade was one of the most famous Republican groups in Northern Ireland over the course of the 'Troubles'. They allegedly drew their membership from right across the eastern side of County Tyrone as well as North Monaghan and South Derry. The east of the county has a very long history of militant Republicanism from Hugh O'Neill, Tom Clarke, J.J. McGarrity, Liam Kelly, Bernadette Devlin and Martin Hurson. One of the most widely publicised failures in the Brigades campaign was at Loughgall where a group of eight men were ambushed and killed by the British special forces, the SAS during an attack on the RUC barracks on May 8, 1987. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA; more commonly referred to as the IRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the army or the Ra) is an Irish Republican paramilitary organization. ... This article is about County Tyrone. ... Hugh ONeill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone (c. ... Tom Clarke is the name of: A British Member of Parliament An Irish republican revolutionary leader involved in the Easter Rising of 1916. ... Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (born April 23, 1947), also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a Northern Ireland republican politician. ... Edward Martin Hurson (September 13, 1956 - July 13, 1981) was an Irish Republican hunger striker and member of the Provisional IRA. He was born one of 9 children in County Tyrone (near Dungannon) and joined the PIRA in his teens. ... Loughgall is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. ... Special forces or special operations forces are relatively small military units raised and trained for special operations missions such as Special Reconnaissance (SR), Unconventional Warfare (UW), Direct Action (DA), Counter-Terrorism (CT), and Foreign Internal Defense (FID). ... For other Special Air Services, see Australian Special Air Service Regiment and Special Air Service of New Zealand. ... The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. ... May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Membership of the Loughgall Unit

The East Tyrone Brigade consisted of:

• Commander Patrick Kelly (aged 32)
• Declan Arthurs (aged 21)
• Seamus Donnelly (aged 19)
• Michael Gormaley (aged 25)
• Eugene Kelly (aged 25)
• Jim Lynagh (aged 31)
• Pádraig McKearney (aged 31)
• Gerry O'Callaghan (aged 29)

Arthurs, Donnelly, Gormaley and Kelly were all from the village of Cappagh, and had joined the PIRA after the death of Martin Hurson, another Cappagh man, on hunger strike in Long Kesh in 1981. Edward Martin Hurson (September 13, 1956 - July 13, 1981) was an Irish Republican hunger striker and member of the Provisional IRA. He was born one of 9 children in County Tyrone (near Dungannon) and joined the PIRA in his teens. ... -1... Her Majestys Prison (HMP) Maze (known colloqually as The Maze) is a disused prison sited at the former RAF station at Long Kesh (it is still called Long Kesh by many Irish Republicans) near Lisburn, nine miles outside Belfast, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Strategy

The PIRA in East Tyrone and other areas close to the border such as South Armagh had been following a Maoist military theory devised for Ireland by Jim Lynagh, the leader of the IRA in East Tyrone (but a native of County Monaghan). The theory was that by starting off with one area which the occupying military did not control, and then by expanding gradually until the desired land was acquired, a paramilitary organisation could control any area of land as long as no enemy forces could retake the "zones of liberation" as they were called. The South Armagh area was considered to be one of those zones and thus it was from there that these attacks were launched, with most of them occurring in East Tyrone in areas close to South Armagh which had good escape routes and the opportunity to expand these zones. Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛澤東思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng), also called Marxism-Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM), is a variant of communism derived from the teachings of Mao Zedong (1893–1976). ... Monaghan (Irish: Contae Muineachán) is a county in the Republic of Ireland. ...

Previous attacks

The East Tyrone Brigade had carried out two previous attacks on RUC bases in East Tyrone. Both attacks were begun by driving a JCB digger with a 200 lb (91 kg) bomb in its bucket through the reinforced fences the RUC had around their bases, then exploding the bomb and raking the barracks with gunfire. On these two occasions the barracks had been destroyed, and most or all of the occupants killed. It was therefore with some confidence that the PIRA tried the same tactics on the Loughall RUC barracks. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. ... JCB is a family business named after its founder J.C.Bamford, producing distinctive yellow-and-black engineering vehicles, diggers (Backhoes) and excavators. ... The so-called Loughall Martyrs were a group of eight men from the Provisional IRAs East Tyrone Brigade who, after conducting a series of guerrilla attacks, were ambushed and killed on May 8 1987 by British special forces, the SAS. Membership The East Tyrone Brigade consisted of: Commander Patrick... The acronym RUC may refer to any of the following: Rádio Universidade de Coimbra Rapid Update Cycle Recordings Under Construction Roskilde University (Roskilde Universitetscenter) Royal Ulster Constabulary Renmin Univisity of China,P.R.C This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share...

The ambush

The SAS, however, had set a meticulously planned a trap to kill the unit, having an RUC informant in the group (he was killed by the SAS in the ambush). They had placed an SAS soldier inside the barracks, and deployed a squad of 24 soldiers split into six groups.

Just after 7 o'clock, Declan Arthurs drove the JCB through the perimeter fence of the barracks. The van carrying the rest of the PIRA unit pulled up and they jumped out and opened fire on the station, intending to provide cover for Arthurs until he could get clear.

The SAS riddled the JCB and the van with bullets. Passer-by Anthony Hughes, 36, was killed and his brother badly wounded when they were caught up in the crossfire. All eight PIRA men were killed, all from head wounds. The soldiers fired more than 600 bullets; the PIRA men fired 70 bullets but did not hit any of the soldiers. It was later revealed that one of the dead men was in fact an informant for the RUC, although this was denied by them and by some journalists, who claimed that the information on the unit was gained from electronic surveillance.

Aftermath

SAS operations against the PIRA continued well into the 1990s. The PIRA conducted a long investigation in search of the informer in their ranks, not realising he had been killed by the SAS in the attack. The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, the last decade of the 20th Century. ...

The group became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among supporters of the PIRA, who alleged that their deaths were part of a deliberate shoot-to-kill policy by the security forces. This article deals with the issue of a shoot-to-kill policy during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. ...

In 2001 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the eight IRA men (among others) had had their human rights violated by the failure of the British government to conduct a proper investigation into the circumstances of their deaths. European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg The European Court of Human Rights, often referred to informally as the Strasbourg Court, was created to systematise the hearing of human rights complaints from Council of Europe member states. ... The United Kingdom is a unitary state and a democratic constitutional monarchy. ...

External links

• Folk song about the "Loughgall Martyrs"
• BBC News: IRA deaths: The four shootings
• Daily Mail article